Luther huffs a laugh, and I remind myself that we planned for her to say that, and it’s not at all true. “He’s not that bad,” Luther defends, and I can’t stop myself making an ank oo through the material stuffed in my mouth.

Arlie throws me a shut-the-fuck-up look, and I don’t know if it’s real or if she’s still in character. “He botched a relatively simple job. He’s exactly that bad.”

“Okay, then.” Luther reaches into his desk and pulls out a business card. “This is all I have to go on. Carson Alexander is a middle-aged white man.”

“They’re my favorite,” Arlie says, taking the card. She glances over it. “You know I won’t be happy if this isn’t legit.”

“It’s legit. But if anyone asks, you didn’t get it from me.”

“No one is going to ask.”

“Good.” Luther points at her phone. “Make the call. I want this over with. Now.”

Arlie closes the footage, brings up Everett’s number, and then hits Call.

“Put him on speaker,” Luther demands. “And put the footage back on.”

A spike of worry hits me because that wasn’t part of the plan, but Arlie doesn’t react. She hits speaker, then flicks back over to the footage.

With the way she’s holding her phone, I have a perfect view of the screen, where Everett takes a step away from Colin to pick up his phone.

“Yeah?” he barks.

“It’s me. You’re on speaker,” Arlie says.

“Don’t care. Is it done?”

“It’s done. Take him out.”

There’s barely a heartbeat of time between the final word passing her lips and⁠—

Bang.

I jump as the gunshot echoes from the speaker, and Colin’s head …

I bow forward over my knees, gagging. The thick stretch of material over my tongue doesn’t do much to stop it, and my throat triggers again and again at what I saw. Even reminding myself it was fake and this is all part of our plan doesn’t help at all because … was it?

That looked way too fucking real.

My forehead is prickling with sweat by the time I finally get myself back under control. I try to tell them I didn’t need to see that, but it comes out as a stream of mangled vowels.

Arlie tucks her phone back away. “What are you going to do with him?”

“Undecided.”

“Cool.” She’s still gripping the business card tight. “You two have fun, then.”

She makes it all the way to the door before Luther speaks again.

“Wait.”

Arlie’s hand tightens on the door handle, but when she glances back over her shoulder, there’s no surprise in her expression. Mine though? Lots of surprise. It’s supposed to be the part where she walks out, and now she’s not walking out.